City wipes out graffiti about graffiti about wiping out graffiti

Even Hollywood can’t cook up this kind of irony. A new kind of graffiti has cropped up around town — advertising, of all things, a film about people who erase graffiti.

Over the weekend, graffiti abatement crews from the city’s Department of Public Works worked to remove some 40 posters and stickers for the new documentary “Vigilante Vigilante: The Battle for Expression,” which were pasted on utility poles, storefronts and trash cans throughout the Mission.

Courtesy/”Vigilante Vigilante”

The movie’s poster — showing, until recently, on a utility pole near you.

The film, which opened at the Roxie Theater Friday, chronicles the clash between graffiti artists and anti-graffiti activists who take it upon themselves to paint out illegally posted tags, stickers and posters. Moving between Berkeley, Los Angeles, New Orleans and Portland, “Vigilante Vigilante” tackles the questions of whose free speech is at stake and whether the so-called vigilantes effectively act as graffiti artists themselves. Featured, among others, are Mohammed Nuru, the new acting head of public works, and Jim Sharp, a Berkeley anti-blight activist.

Fines for illegally posted materials can be as high as $500, according to Gloria Chan, a spokeswoman for the public works department.

But Nathan Wollman, the film’s producer, insists the moviemakers had nothing to do with putting up the posters and stickers. The company handed out such materials at promotional events throughout the city, and Wollman guesses that a handful of recipients ran amok with them.

“Some people pasted it, and we have no idea who it is,” said Wollman, who runs Open Ranch Productions in San Francisco. “We’re very angry that someone did this without our permission, we have no idea what’s going on with that.”

On their Facebook and Twitter, the filmmakers have asked the public to take down any posters and stickers they see.

The public works department hasn’t decided to issue any fines as of yet. “If we see more posters going up and this does not stop, we’ll have to really take a look at the next steps,” Chan said. “But right now, it seems like the postings are stopped, we haven’t had any reports come in.”

The incident raises an interesting question: Who’s responsible when the name splashed across the pavement may not be the perpetrator’s?